August 7, 2006 - The National Library of Korea

Our group was warmly received at the National Library of Korea and given a brief lecture by Chi-Ju Lee, the National Librarian, that covered the history of the library and the many responsibilities it has in the Korean library system. Among the things that the NLK provides to 515 public libraries and about 10,000 school libraries are operational funds and an automated library system named KOLIS, Korean Library Information System, that they developed and which they provide free to all libraries. They are also building a digital library that will house their entire digital collection ( over 93 million pages) that was recently completed in 2000, 20 years ahead of schedule.

The attention paid to us by the welcoming staff of the NLK was moving; the NLK Chief Executive, Kwon Kyung Sang, even took time out of his busy schedule to meet with us for a short Q&A session. I don't think that anyone in our group had expected to be treated with such warm hospitality and respect.